{"id":7180,"date":"2026-06-01T14:52:06","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T12:52:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/betweendrafts.com\/justdrafts\/?p=7180"},"modified":"2026-06-01T14:55:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T12:55:08","slug":"the-collected-uncollected-stories-by-robert-aickman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/betweendrafts.com\/justdrafts\/2026\/06\/01\/the-collected-uncollected-stories-by-robert-aickman\/","title":{"rendered":"The Collected Uncollected Stories by Robert Aickman"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s a handful of formerly uncollected stories that were first published by Tartarus Press in 2015 under the title The Strangers<\/em> (or, The Strangers and Other Writings<\/em>, according to the title page)\u2014which, as usual<\/a> with Aickman editions from this publisher, is excellent but unavailable for the merely mortal.<\/p>\n

Three years later, the collection Compulsory Games<\/em> appeared in the NYRB Classics series. That one\u2019s widely available, but several stories included in The Strangers<\/em> are missing, namely \u201cThe Case of Wallingford\u2019s Tiger\u201d (1936), \u201cThe Whistler\u201d (est. 1938\/39), and \u201cThe Flying Anglo-Dutchman\u201d (1941). According to a statement by the Tartarus publisher, Aickham\u2019s literary estate only allowed their publication for scholarly reasons, restricted to that one printing.<\/p>\n

Which leaves four stories, the last ones to feature on this blog: the three short stories \u201cA Disciple of Plato,\u201d written between 1930 and 1980; \u201cThe Coffin House,\u201d written in 1941; and \u201cThe Fully Conducted Tour,\u201d written and recorded for BBC Radio 4 in 1976 but not broadcast, first published in 2005; and the novella \u201cThe Strangers,\u201d written between the late 1950s and early 1960s.<\/p>\n

The short stories are short and the remarks can be brief.<\/p>\n

In \u201cA Disciple of Plato,\u201d a kind of period romance, the entire setting feels as flat as a painting before the vanishing point was invented, with thick strokes of learned expressions and interminable sentences. \u201cThe Coffin House\u201d is the kind of horror story without narrative depth that populate high school lit mags, while \u201cThe Fully-Conducted Tour,\u201d more advanced and more distinctly Aickmanesque, would qualify for an undergrad journal.<\/p>\n

Finally, the novella \u201cThe Strangers.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s very uneven, but an enjoyable read after all. With its density of quips and similes, it seems to be trying to channel American hardboiled fiction, only more verbose and technically unpolished. Dashes of Lovecraftian framing and a strong Poeish feel mix in with nineteenth-century novel conventions, like the overuse of first-letter-plus-m-dashes for family and location names and excessive foreshadowings which, like crying wolf too often, fail to make things more ominous after a time. But then, by way of a splendidly imaginative horror tableau around what is technically a belated first turning point but with enough punch for a midpoint, the story becomes interesting, better written, and thrilling.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Strangers\u201d provides a fine closure to my Aickman journey, an amazing ride along which many of his techniques, scenes, and images succeeded in leaving lasting marks on my memory.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

Aickman, Robert. The Strangers and Other Writings<\/em>. Tartarus Press<\/a>, 2015.
\nAickman, Robert. Compulsory Games<\/em>. NYRB Classics<\/a>, 2018.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\ud83d\udcda \u201cThat\u2019s All Folks!\u201d<\/p>\n<\/a>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-archive","h-entry","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/betweendrafts.com\/justdrafts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/betweendrafts.com\/justdrafts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/betweendrafts.com\/justdrafts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/betweendrafts.com\/justdrafts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/betweendrafts.com\/justdrafts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7180"}],"version-history":[{"count":82,"href":"https:\/\/betweendrafts.com\/justdrafts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7180\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7262,"href":"https:\/\/betweendrafts.com\/justdrafts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7180\/revisions\/7262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/betweendrafts.com\/justdrafts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/betweendrafts.com\/justdrafts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/betweendrafts.com\/justdrafts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}